A. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to a catheter system for use in a human body, and more particularly to a multi-electrode catheter system, and even more particularly to an electrode assembly for a multi-electrode catheter system.
B. Background Art
Catheter systems are well known in the art for use in medical procedures, such as diagnostic, therapeutic and ablative procedures. Typical catheter systems generally include an elongate catheter extending from a handle. A physician manipulates the catheter through the patient's vasculature to an intended site within the patient. The catheter typically carries one or more working components, such as electrodes or other diagnostic, therapeutic or ablative devices for carrying out the procedures. One or more controls or actuators may be provided on the handle for selectively adjusting one or more characteristics of the working components.
One particular example of a multi-electrode catheter system is an ablative catheter system in which the working component is a multi-electrode component carried at the distal end of a flexible catheter. A control wire extends within the catheter from the multi-electrode component to the handle to operatively connect the multi-electrode component to an actuator on the handle. Manipulating the actuator acts on the control wire to configure the multi-electrode component into a desired configuration for carrying out the ablative procedure. For example, in one such ablative catheter system made by St. Jude Medical, Inc. under the trade name EnligHTN, the multi-electrode component is an electrode assembly in the general form of a basket. Upon locating the electrode basket at a desired location within the patient, manipulating the actuator associated with the handle pulls on the control wire to reconfigure the electrode basket from a collapsed configuration to an expanded configuration in which the electrodes are intended to be in apposition with a surface, such as an arterial wall of the patient. It is thus desirable to facilitate apposition of as many of the electrodes of the electrode basket as possible against the arterial wall of the patient when the electrode basket is expanded to achieve optimal performance of the multi-electrode catheter system.